Screenwriter Christy Hall isn’t denying that Ryan Reynolds rewrote a scene in the film It Ends With Us. In fact, she’s proud of how the scene turned out.
“The iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it. Nobody knows that but you now,” Blake Lively said ahead of the Friday, August 9, premiere. “We help each other. He works on everything I do; I work on everything he does. So his wins, his celebrations are mine and mine are his.”
It Ends With Us is based on the 2016 Colleen Hoover novel by the same name. The story is based on the abusive relationship between Hoover’s parents. The scene Lively says Reynolds rewrote involves Lively’s character, Lily Bloom, first meeting neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni).
“My first attempt at that scene, I really tried to just honor what Colleen wrote, almost word for word,” Hall explained in an interview with People published Thursday, August 8. “I really, really tried because I just think that she did it best. What’s tricky about that scene is it’s long.”
She continued, “I am very proud of my work, and I do feel like the beats that needed to be honored in that scene are preserved and they’re there. Again, Colleen did it best. She did it first and it’s from her. I do think that that scene is a really beautiful reflection of what she penned from the beginning.”
According to Hall, when they filmed the scene, she wasn’t aware that someone had rewritten the script; she assumed the actors were improvising the changes.
“Like when he says, ‘Pretty please with a cherry on top,’ and she talks about the maraschino cherries — when I saw a cut I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cute. That must have been a cute improvised thing.’ So if I’m being told that Ryan wrote that, then great, how wonderful,” Hall said. “There were a few little flourishes that I did not write … and if those flourishes came from Ryan, I think that’s wonderful.”
While Hall may not have a problem with the rewrite, it’s less clear what the film’s other star thinks. Amid social media speculation about Baldoni’s separate press tour from the cast, The Hollywood Reporter reports that Lively tapped editor Shane Reid — who worked on Reynolds’ Deadpool & Wolverine — to do a cut of the film. Lively is a producer on the project, while Baldoni pulled double duty as the director.
The alleged creative differences — which neither party has publicly commented on — haven’t stopped Baldoni from praising Lively in a recent appearance on the Today Show.
“I think she’s best known as an actress, and, of course, she’s a fashion icon, but she is so much more than that,” he said. “She is a dynamic creative. She had her hands in every part of this production, and everything she touched made better.”
